Lightroom 4 Camera Calibration Profile Presets

I’ve had a bunch of requests lately to update the Camera Profile presets that I released a couple of years ago so here they are. These presets simply select the Camera Profiles that you’d normally select in camera (picture controls or picture styles that increase saturation, color, contrast). If you shoot in Raw though, those styles are discarded and left off of the raw file (which is why your raw file sometimes looks a little flat in Lightroom). But Lightroom has profiles that simulate those controls in the Camera Calibration panel in the Develop module.

How To Best Use Them
I get a TON of questions on how to apply these to multiple photos and I think the presets are one of the best ways to do that. Just select your favorite one in the Import dialog and it’ll be automatically applied to the photos so you don’t have to do it.

First things first… these presets only work with Raw files so don’t try them on JPEGs. There’s also 2 downloads here. One for Nikon and one for Canon (sorry if you use another brand but I had to go with the top two here). Give ‘em a try. I think you’ll find them easier to click through (or even better, hover over and check them in the Navigator preview panel), rather than clicking on each profile in the Camera Calibration panel.

Matt is the full-time Director of Education for Kelby Media Group and a Tampa-based photographer. He's the Editor-in-Chief of Lightroom Magazine, the lead instructor on the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom LIVE Seminar Tour and author of several best-selling Photoshop books. Matt also hosts the world's top Lightroom blog, LightroomKillerTips.com, where he's built up a massive library of Lightroom videos, presets and tips. In addition to teaching Photoshop, Lightroom and photography seminars around the world, he's an instructor at Photoshop World and one of the full-time staff writers for Photoshop User Magazine.

Hey Jennifer.
1) The presets definitely work better on Raw files.
2) Yes, there’s a difference. Nikon ones work for Nikon and Canon ones are meant for Canon
3) Nope, no difference. Use whichever one looks good.

I guess I worded that a little wrong. I was trying to ask if it REALLY matters which preset you use (whether it be Nikon or Canon) onto a RAW Nikon file. I didn’t know if they were both completely 100% compatible for editing RAW Nikon files. Just wanted to make sure that the Canon presets wouldn’t create future problems when used on a Nikon file.

First of all thanks for all the help I have gained from this site, all is really helpful! I was wondering if you, or anybody else noticed messed up colors in the Nikon presets. Not necessarily yours, but also the ones that come with Lightroom in camera calibration. I was hoping for an improvement update in 5.2, but still I see a lot of messed up color “stains”. They are most noticeable in water(specially with longer exposures) or skies. With the adobe standard preset, they disappear. I’m so disappointed, cause I like the presets so much… I shoot with Nikon D600… any ideas???

Nikon D90 and LR 4.4. When I apply the Adobe camera calibration profile to my photo it doesn’t even begin to come close to the out-of-camera JPEG or the raw NEF file as rendered by Nikon View NX2. I installed Matt’s profiles and the results were similar to the results based on the Adobe camera profiles. Hardly and difference between the unedited NEF file and the way the image looks after the profile has been applied (certainly not the “pop” that is found in the JPEG image). Am I completely missing something here? I thought the whole idea behind creating and using camera profiles was to approximate the results achieved with in-camera image processing.

What I do is open the shot in ViewNX and open the same shot in lightroom.
I match the lightroom colors by using the sliders to the ViewNX photo and safe it as a lightroom user preset.
The next time when I import photos in to lightroom I open the “Apply during import” window and select the preset that was created.
The photo will now look the same as the photo in ViewNV

How do you delete Camera Calibration Profiles? I created a few in LR4 based on CC Passport shots I took and was an idiot when I named them. I just want to remove some from the list and can not find anything on it. Thanks for your help!

Thanks Matt for the presets. I am just confused about the difference between the presets menu in your video and the presets found in the camera calibration menu (LR 4 dev module). Is or is it not the same?

You and everyone at Kelby Media have done so much for me. I cant express my gratitude.

That said, the most recent copy of your magazine explained how to set presets that are camera (not brand) specific, which I followed and now use for my D300s and can see the improvements over the generic Adobe settings for my camera.

So how can one set of presets for Nikon or Canon or any camera work? Why not explain the process and have folks make their own. Took little time really.

Hi Matt,
First off, I have been a huge fan of this site since the original LR beta. Thank you for providing videos & answering our questions.
I recently had a phootshoot in a park in the woods under shade. I primarily exposed for ambient light, and added fill light with direct flash. I always shoot in raw, but have noticed a slight greenish tone in in the skin tones. My white balance is pretty much corrected. I am assuming that the green trees are reflecting in some color that my fill flash did not overpower… Is there a way to use camera calibrations to help decrease this problem? Or any other options I may have in LR? Of course the best way to fix it, is to get it right in camera Thank you for any suggestions. Gear Nikon d5100, SB 800, 18-200mm VR

Lightroom uses two camera profiles for every camera model it supports to process raw images. The profiles are produced by photographing a color target under different white-balanced lighting conditions. When you set a white balance, Lightroom uses the profiles for your camera to extrapolate color information. These camera profiles are the same ones developed for Adobe Camera Raw. They are not ICC color profiles.

I have a question related to Lightroom and I cant find the answer anywhere so I thought Id turn to the one person who knows LR better than anyone else.

What I would like is for Lightroom to automatically set noise reduction on my images on import depending on the ISO.

So for example;
If I import an image shot at 1600 ISO on a Canon 5D MK II, I would like to apply a value of 20 (luminance) on my images and lets say, If I import an image shot at 3200 iso, I would like to apply a value of 40…

You get the idea.

The other bit….
I shoot with two bodies and I would like to know if its possible to set up a ‘preset’ for each camer based on the serial number etc??

A response would really help me out and really cut down my post production time.

Thanks a lot for the update Matt! I’ve been looking forward to these as the old presets caused some of the develop sliders to end up not zeroed out and was a little disorienting. Looks like the old “Standard” preset in LR4 doesn’t have the same black level compared to the update (it’s subtle, but noticeable when you compare the two).

I forgot to add what sparked my question about default camera calibration profiles and the presets you provided … I was wondering why your presets aren’t having any changes on my image when cycling through them because I may be missing camera calibration profiles that should’ve been installed by default (or that I need to).

In the meantime, I’ll import a few other images and see if your presets change their appearance – the one image I am using isn’t B&W but although a color image it has a ton of gray shades.

First off, thanks for providing all the presets you do, your hard work has kick-started my workflow many times!

So a quick questions, since I did not find my answers on Adobe’s website (and getting any tech support is quite a time-consuming challenge) … I just did an install of CS6 Design Premium and Lightroom 4 on a ‘clean’ computer and have been installing my old LR3 presets (which I have noticed some interesting results of using LR3 presets in LR4), however, I just installed these Camera Calibration presets and upon cycling through the Nikon and Canon versions (in the Develop Module, Presets) I don’t see any changes in the image – I see that the ‘Profile’ switches from Adobe Standard to ACR 4.4 (in the Camera Calibration panel) … but the image doesn’t change noticeably.

Back in LR3, before installing PSKiss’ camera calibration additions I thought there were more profiles to select from – as some searching online indicates some have Camera Neutral, Camera Faithful or any specific to Nikon or Canon … can you tell me what should be installed by default with LR4/Camera RAW?

Before installing third-party camera calibration profiles (PSKiss or any that come from Nik, OnOne, or other LR developers) is there a place I can ensure that I get all Adobe’s current camera calibration profiles?

Thanks Matt,while we have your attention,do you have a preset that would emulate
Nik Tonal Contrast,without producing a .tif file and leaving Lightroom,I have been using Capture NX2 for the last 8 years and just love the Tonal Contrast filter,being able to add it to the Nef file is great,just started to use Lightroom 4 and must admit I love the interface compared with CNX2. Have played with all the sliders but fail to match the quality of the TonalContrast filter and yes I do have the Color Efex 3 plug in though I would prefer to stay within Lightroom.

I don’t recall the LR3 calibration ones you did before having any adjustments that were slider spacific, they were just a another ACR to use as a starting point to make your photo better before you moved any of the sliders.

Hi Julian. They’re actually just presets that apply the profiles. They don’t create new ones. Its just an easy way to apply the profiles without searching through all of them or applying them to photos when you import.

Matt,
I think it is great that you have done these presets, however being a Sony A77 user, I was wondering if you might put an example of how to do these presets generically out there so I might try creating some of these for my camera. I have never created a preset before. Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the presets, Matt. These will be useful when importing images.
One question though, in my camera calibration drop down menu I have several different presets for each category. For example, Camera Vivid, Camera Vivid V2, Camera Vivid V3. Your presets look like they are using the non “V2 or V4″ versions.
I thought the V numbers were Adobe iterations of each camera calibration (and that using the higher V number was the most recent).
Have you had any experience with this?